Follow Me
by Kari Jo
Summary: Follow me, everything is all right; I'll be the one to tuck you in at night... (L/R, S/J, S/R)
1. Follow Me, Part 1

  
Category: Angst, R/L, S/J, S/R, Six years post-movie   
Archive: Lists, else just ask. I'll say yes. Really.   
Feedback: Please, I beg of you, pretty, pretty please! I know I'm horrible about feedback'ing, but please!?!   
Series: I doubt it.   
Summary: Follow me, everything is all right...   
Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, I wouldn't be driving a beat-up '87 Chevy. And the song belongs to Uncle Kracker.   
Thanks: To Jenn, Mels, and ErinM who so graciously offered to beta-read my ramblings. This would definitely not be readable without you girls.   
A/N: This started out as a challenge: what if Scott was the bad guy that broke Rogue and Logan up? I have major S/R tendencies here, so I had to do this. Also, this is my first WiP to be posted in a long time. I used to do it, but they never seem to get finished because no one really cares enough about them, and some were just horribly, horribly bad. (Redwall fic...*shudder*) So...if you guys care about what happens in this story...could you please, pretty, pretty please with cherries and sugar on top, tell me? I do have another chapter written, but it hasn't been totally beta'd yet. I'll hopefully be posting a chapter every 2-3 days, but you may have to prod me once in a while.   
A/N 2: This is NOT a songfic. I'm going to use the lyrics to 'Follow Me' in it, but they are just to add to it, not the reason for the story. I can write something other than a songfic.   
A/N 3: There's been a minor change in the first part thanks to Minisinoo's insight on how Scott's mutation really works. (It isn't lasers, just beams of energy that can 'punch' through things.) 

indicates memories 

> _You don't know how you met me,   
You don't know why, you can't turn around and say good-bye.   
All you know is when I'm with you I make you free..._
>
>> - Uncle Kracker, 'Follow Me'

The small, oily mutant known as Toad lunged. His long tongue snaked out toward the visor wrapped around Cyclops's head. The X-Man dodged quickly, his momentum causing him to skid across the floor. He lay on his back, fingertips near the side of his head, waiting. 

He didn't have to wait long. The other man bounded toward him, intent on the kill. Cyclops released a red ray of power at Toad, and watched the smaller man fall to the ground, clutching a gaping hole in his midsection. 

Across the room, Rogue battled Sabretooth. She attempted a roundhouse kick to his head, but he caught her leg and flipped her over. Her head smashed on the floor with a resounding crack. The force of the blow, though enough to kill a normal person, drove Rogue's breath from her lungs. She felt a vulnerability she hadn't known since absorbing and killing Carol. 

The hairy man grabbed her throat in his huge hand, and lifted her off the ground, attempting to crush the life out of her. Her facilities still impaired from her contact with the ground, she removed her left glove and reached for his face. Blood vessels protruded from his shaggy skin as he slumped to the ground, releasing her. She fell roughly to the tiled floor, breathing heavily. 

Cyclops stared at the lifeless form of Toad on the ground near his feet. Glancing to the side, he noticed Rogue, her neck bruised and clothing torn, crawling toward him. He reached a hand down to her to pull her up, and she took it. A sharp jolt brought them back to reality as they realized both their hands were bare. Rogue fell back to the floor and Scott struggled to keep his balance. 

Just then, a flash of blue caught Rogue's eye. "Scott!" she screamed. Cyclops whirled around, still a little woozy, and clicked his visor once, aiming for Mystique's torso. 

Nothing happened. 

"Computer! Stop program! Command zero, zero, zero, zero!" Rogue's panicked voice shouted the command in an unusually high octave. 

Within seconds, the illusions faded, and the forms of Mystique, Sabretooth and Toad were reduced to anamatronic skeletons. They too soon disappeared, pulled into the wall by wires. Rogue moved quickly to Scott's side as he struggled with his visor. His movements were slightly impaired from her touch, and it took him longer than usual. Carefully, he opened his eyes. 

"Oh my God," he murmured, as his naked eyes adjusted to the world. For the first time in over a decade, he looked at the world without glasses or a visor. He touched his face, running his fingers over his eyes, as if to assure himself that he was really awake, and not dreaming. 

Rogue stared in shock at her best friend and leader. "They're blue," she whispered. 

He looked at her. "Yeah. They're blue." His unveiled eyes searched her face. "What happened?" 

Rogue looked down at her hands, only one of which was gloved. "Ah think...Ah think Ah borrowed your powers, just for a little bit, so...well, you don't have 'em." She looked up at him. 

Scott's voice was soft when he spoke next. "Then why...why aren't you...well, why are your eyes normal?" 

She shrugged, then averted her face. She focused on a point on the wall, concentrating and squinting. She was rewarded with a beam of red emanating from her optics. It struck the point, punching a hole the size of a quater in the plaster. She looked again at her friend. "It doesn't seem very strong; Ah think you may be gettin' it back soon, if all of it was ever really gone." 

He nodded and slipped on his visor. Rogue looked at the covered face before her. "Weren't you in a plane accident when you were little? Maybe you hit your head." 

Scott nodded. "Yeah, but I can't remember it very well at all. I might have." Suddenly, he stiffened. He clicked his visor once, and a beam of energy hit the far wall. "I felt it come back. It was like something clicked back into place. Like a piece of a puzzle." He stared at Rogue for a moment. "Thank you." 

Rogue smiled uncomfortably. "You really shouldn' thank me; Ah could have killed you. Ah shouldn'ta been so careless--" 

"But you didn't kill me, and I got to see without glasses for while. I'm grateful for that, Rogue." 

After a brief pause, she stood up. "They're prob'ly worried about us." She walked to the door of the Danger room and reached for the knob. She paused and turned around to look at Scott. "Just...don't tell anyone, OK? Logan will have a cow when he gets back, and the Professor and Jean will want to have a field day with mah head. So, can we keep it just between us, at least for now?" 

He nodded, and she walked out the door.


	2. Follow Me, Part 2

A/N: This chapter is very Logan/Rogue-centric. Scott/Rogue is coming soon. 

Her room was her sanctuary. Although she and Logan had lived together in this room for almost three years, his clothes hanging in the closet were the only evidence to the fact. Rogue sighed as she caressed the bed that she too often slept in alone. He was in Canada now, where he frequently went in search of his past. She told him he should come home more often, and longer, but his need to know drove him on. He was obsessed with finding out who he was, even though she'd told him that she loved him anyway; she didn't care who he'd been before. 

But I care, darlin'. 

Let the past be, Logan. You need to live in the present and the future. With me. What if...what if you find out that you have a wife and kids? What about them? Would you tell them you're married again? 

Yes, I'd tell them that. I love you, Marie. I'll never leave you. Not for anyone or anything. 

Promise? 

Yeah. I promise. 

Tears had fallen unbidden during her side trip down memory lane. She wiped them quickly away with her hand, and reached for a pen and paper. Scooping piles of ungraded papers onto the floor, Rogue sat at her desk. The pen held loosely in her bare left hand trembled slightly as she tried to compose a letter to Logan. 

> **Logan, **
> 
> Miss you, sugar. Come home soon. And call me as soon as you get this, OK? I really need to talk to you. 
>
>> Love,   
Marie

She placed her lips just below her signature, leaving her own scent mixed with her strawberry lip gloss on the paper. After quickly scribbling the school's phone number near the bottom of the sheet--just in case he forgot--she slid it into an envelope and addressed it. The PO box she sent it to was in Alberta, and Logan checked it semi-frequently; it was the fastest way to get in touch with him besides asking Charles to contact him. 

Rogue sighed and placed the letter on top of her 'out' pile, most of which, she realized, was now scattered on the carpet. She began to pick the papers up and reorganize them: graded papers, tests, and memos went in the 'out' pile; assignments to be graded went in the 'in' pile. 

She considered finishing her work, but she was still too shook up over the incident with Scott in the Danger Room to focus on English Literature. She quickly pulled a new pair of gloves from a drawer and slipped out into the hallway. 

The main corridors were sparsely populated at this time of night, but Rogue didn't want to encounter anyone. She walked softly down the back stairway--at one time for servant's use only--and out the door. The spring moon shone down on her, catching her platinum streaks in a ray of ethereal light. It was still chilly enough for a heavy jacket; for once she was grateful for the gloves she was forced to wear. 

A well worn path led her to the garden she and Ororo had so carefully cultivated last fall. The flowers hadn't yet bloomed, but Rogue knew it was only a matter of time; when the March winds changed to April showers, the bulbs would send up shoots, the perennials would return, and she would plant the minute annual seeds. 

Shivering slightly as a breeze ruffled her hair, she thought of the first time she had helped 'Ro with the garden. The fall after she had arrived the older woman had asked her if she'd ever gardened. 

Mah momma used to have a big flower garden. Ah loved it. 

Then you shall help me with the planting this year. The professor and I have decided our small flower plot needs to be expanded. 

She knew they'd expanded it because of her. Something she could do, something she could touch, without gloves. She had agreed, not because she liked gardening, but because they cared. They loved her and wanted to help her, to make her feel more at home. And she did. 

She remembered the day Logan had come home. She had been digging up daffodil bulbs and suddenly he was there. One year, no letters, no phone calls, nothing, and then he just showed up and hugged her. He told her he'd found a few leads, but nothing concrete. 

So you're leavin' again. 

I have to, Marie. I have to know who did this to me, and why. 

Why don't you just stay? For a little while at least. 

I will. 

How long? 

The whole summer, kid. 

He did. And then he left, for just two months this time. Each time he came back, he brought her something: a postcard, a trinket, a pair of silk gloves. Then finally, after two years, he didn't hand her anything the day he returned. 

She'd cried, thinking he'd finally found his family and was just waiting for a good time to tell her. To lead her on for two years, making her think she was the only woman her cared about--the only person he cared about--and then just drop her when a better offer came along was cruel, even for the Wolverine. 

Jubilee had yanked her out of bed early the next morning. Half pushing, half dragging the semi-unconscious young woman to the dining hall, she seated her in Rogue's customary chair. All eyes were focused expectantly on the doorway, as if they knew something she did not. 

Then Logan had entered, clean-shaven,--at least for him--scrubbed, and dressed in a new pair of jeans and a nice button-down shirt. He'd walked calmly to her, but his eyes had betrayed his anxiety. 

Marie, I'm sorry I made you cry. I wanted to surprise you, but I didn't know you'd take it that way. Can you forgive me? 

Yeah. Ah forgive you, Logan. 

Then... He'd paused, swallowing nervously. I love you, Marie. I want to be with you, and only you, forever. Will you marry me? 

Yes, Logan, yes I will! 

The feel of fresh tears on her cheek brought her back to the present. Logan's frequent trips to Canada had driven a wedge between them; each time he returned they were farther and farther apart, while she and Scott had grown closer. 

Rogue put her elbows on her knees and began massaging her temples. Why was she thinking of Scott now? True, the two were good friends, but... She shook her head, resolving not to think of it until morning. Her head pounded after her crying jag, and trying to reason out her messed up mind wasn't going to help. Silently she crept back into the mansion and to her room where she crawled into the painfully empty double bed.


End file.
